Kentucky basketball team to play Michigan in London next year, UK confirms

The University of Kentucky men’s basketball program, which has been dribbling the roundball since 1903, keeps finding ways to break new ground.

Next year, the Wildcats will play a regular-season game in Europe for the first time, traveling to London, England, in December 2020 to face the Michigan Wolverines.

The game is part of a three-year deal with Michigan that Kentucky announced Wednesday. UK will face Michigan in Ann Arbor on Dec. 4, 2021, and in Rupp Arena on Dec. 3, 2022. The date of the London game has not yet been set.

Kentucky will face Michigan in London’s O2 Arena as a fundraiser for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. It will be the first NCAA Division I game played at the venue.

UK said additional details about the game, including date, time, TV details and ticket pricing will be announced in January.

“This series with Michigan checks off a lot of boxes when we’re looking at teams to schedule,” UK head coach John Calipari said in a news release. “The first thing is, to add an opponent like Michigan and to do so at a point in the schedule where we’re beginning to find out who we are as a team will be important in our development.

“And then to be able to do something different — to be first, which our fans know we love to do — and play this first game in London will be an unforgettable experience for our players and for our fans. I imagine the home-and-home games the following seasons will be as good as any non-conference games in the country.”

Travel packages will also be announced at a later time, UK said.

UK has played internationally on a number of occasions for foreign exhibition tours, but the game in London will mark only Kentucky’s fourth regular-season trip outside the U.S.

The Wildcats traveled to Puerto Rico in November 1998 for the San Juan Shootout (UK went 2-1 during the three-game trip), defeated Cleveland State and Stanford in Mexico in the Cancun Challenge in November 2009 and most recently beat Arizona State in the Bahamas in November 2016.

Kentucky does have some history with London. After winning the 1948 national championship — UK’s first NCAA title — five Wildcats represented the U.S. in the 1948 Olympics in London. The Kentucky-led team won all eight of its games to win the gold medal.

The Wolverines are led this season by first-year head coach Juwan Howard, who has guided Michigan to a 7-1 start and a No. 4 ranking in the most recent Associated Press poll. Howard was part of Michigan’s “Fab Five” of the early 1990s. That team defeated Kentucky in the 1993 Final Four in New Orleans, with Howard scoring 17 points.

UK leads the all-time series with Michigan 5-2. The most recent meeting came in the 2014 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in Indianapolis. Aaron Harrison’s game-winning three-point basket propelled Kentucky to the Final Four with a 75-72 win.

UK has played Michigan twice in Ann Arbor. Kentucky won 96-79 on Dec. 2, 1967, and 104-93 on Dec. 5, 1970.

Michigan has played Kentucky twice in Lexington. Michigan won 21-11 on Dec. 20, 1924. Kentucky won 112-104 on Dec. 20, 1968, in the UK Invitational Tournament.

The teams’ only other meeting took place in Iowa City, Iowa, on March 12, 1966. Kentucky won a second-round NCAA Tournament game, 84-77.

This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 12:07 PM.